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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27724640">Carry on, Andrew</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Welikesandalwood/pseuds/Welikesandalwood'>Welikesandalwood</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>All For The Game - Nora Sakavic, Carry On Series - Rainbow Rowell</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Andrew Minyard Has Feelings, Carry On References, Domestic Fluff, Fanboy Andrew Minyard, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Post-Canon, Soft Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard, Spoilers for Carry On, bookworm andrew minyard, everyone loves baz</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 17:14:35</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,655</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27724640</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Welikesandalwood/pseuds/Welikesandalwood</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“I still find it hard to believe that you can be in love with me and Baz both,” Neil retorts, “if anything – I have more in common with Simon than Baz, so your ‘type’ is just confusing.”</p><p> </p><p>“I think falling in fanboy love with Baz was inevitable,” Andrew explains, “since the reason I got sucked into the Carry On universe in the first place was because I identified with Simon on a personal level, and he has two brain cells which he uses for Baz and saving the world, respectively”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard, Tyrannus Basilton "Baz" Pitch/Simon Snow</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>106</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Carry on, Andrew</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><em>Present Day:</em><br/>
<br/>
“Baz would approve of my Starbucks order. Baz would be proud of my Starbucks order”, Andrew stated, turning his nose up at Neil and grimacing in the direction of Neil’s simple Black Filter Coffee.</p><p><br/>
“Baz understands that the point of coming to Starbucks is to get an actual drink – not the crappy filter coffee you get every day.”, he continues.</p><p><br/>
Neil rolls his eyes at his boyfriend; he is no stranger to Andrew’s fanboy obsession with fictional character Baz Pitch, from one of Andrew’s favorite book series’; <em>‘The Simon Snow Books.’</em> Neil didn’t dare speak an ill word of Baz in Andrew’s presence; he knew his place.<br/>
<br/>
“I still find it hard to believe that you can be in love with me and Baz both,” Neil retorts, “if anything – I have more in common with Simon than Baz, so your ‘type’ is just confusing.”</p><p><br/>
“I think falling in fanboy love with Baz was inevitable,” Andrew explains, “since the reason I got sucked into the <em>Carry On</em> universe in the first place was because I identified with Simon on a personal level, and he has two brain cells which he uses for Baz and saving the world, respectively”</p><p><br/>
This isn’t news to Neil, although it surprised him the first time Andrew opened up to him about it. Andrew told him about his fanboy tendencies and particularly his adoration of<em> Carry On</em> during their ‘Truth for Truth’ game, about a year after they started dating.<br/>
<br/>
<em>A Year Ago:</em></p><p><br/>
Neil was gushing about exy and Andrew retorted with the typical “can you even talk about anything but exy?” (although after dating for a year they both know he can).</p><p><br/>
This time, Neil asked back, “is there anything you’re passionate about like that? Anything you could spend hours talking about and analyzing and just...losing yourself in?</p><p><br/>
I know you aren’t as intrigued by exy as I am, but you listen to me talk about it for hours just because it makes me happy to talk to you about it. I want to listen to you talk to me about things that excite you as well.”</p><p>Neil had inched closer to Andrew while saying the last part, they had been on the roof of Fox Tower at the time. He was sitting a bit behind Andrew. He put his head on Andrew’s shoulder, “I want to hear you spend hours talking about literally anything, long as it makes you happy. The way you listen to me without making me feel like I’m legitimately boring you even if you find the topic boring. There must be something you lose yourself in. I refuse to believe that you hate everything”<br/>
<br/>
Andrew had been quiet for a few minutes, seemingly contemplating the pros and cons of giving Neil another part of himself that he can’t take back. Another part of himself he never bothers giving anyone else, because no one ever wanted enough to actually ask for it.<br/>
<br/>
“<em>Carry on.</em>”, Andrew replied with some finality.<br/>
<br/>
Neil shrugged, his head still on Andrew’s shoulder “that was my whole argument, ‘Drew. I’ve said it all. I’d just like to hear you talk to me for hours about unimportant things for a change”<br/>
<br/>
Andrew smiled, but Neil couldn’t see it “no, bunny,” (at some point during their exploration of pet names once they started dating; “rabbit” had become “bunny” and it makes Neil blush a lot more than it probably should), “it’s a book – <em>Carry On</em> by <em>Rainbow Rowell.</em> I may or may not be a closeted bookworm and Baz Pitch fanboy”<br/>
<br/>
Neil sat up at that. He crawled forward and turned to face Andrew, folding his legs. He rested his face on his palm, making a show of getting comfortable for storytime. He didn’t say anything, but he gave Andrew a small smile of encouragement.<br/>
Andrew took it for what it was; an invitation to keep talking. A promise that Neil wouldn’t get bored. Assurance that Neil wants to know all the parts of him that no one ever bothered to learn before. The tiny, insignificant details that make up Andrew.<br/>
Andrew smiled a real and true smile. This time, he let Neil see it.</p><p>He had told Neil everything. The two of them sat on the rooftop for hours while Andrew told Neil the story of how he first discovered the book when he was 15 – in Juvi.<br/>
There weren’t many books available to him at Juvi, especially fiction, so he picked it up and didn’t expect much from it. He got sucked in on literally the first page.</p>
<hr/>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <em><span class="u">CARRY ON PAGE 1</span><br/>
‘I walk to the bus station by myself.<br/>
There’s always a fuss over my paperwork when I leave.<br/>
All summer long, we’re not even allowed to walk to Tesco’s without a chaperone and permission from the Queen – then, in the autumn, I just sign myself out of the children’s home and go’ </em>
  </p>
</blockquote><hr/><p><em>Children’s home</em>, he remembers thinking to himself. The protagonist was an orphan. Just like him. Had no one, just like him. He kept reading. Andrew explained that he had read that whole book, living vicariously through Simon. He identified with Simon, primarily because of their shared social and familial background, but he related to Simon’s protective streak.</p><p><br/>
Neil found out that at some point Baz – Simon’s nemesis – had not returned to school that year and Simon was very pissed off about this. The Audacity.<br/>
<br/>
“but if that’s his nemesis, shouldn’t he be happy that he didn’t show?” he has asked, genuinely intrigued.</p><p>There was an energy in Andrew's eyes that Neil rarely saw. Never about something as mundane as a book.</p><p><br/>
“no – you don’t get it. He never had anyone, and even after he started attending Watford,” – the magic school, kind of some Hogwarts related thing. But Andrew flipped his shit and took literal offense when Neil tried to draw comparisons between the two. Neil learned very quickly that you cannot insinuate in any way that any element of Carry on (especially Baz Pitch) are in any way imperfect or can be rivaled by any other fandom – “he only really had his best friend, girlfriend, and nemesis. Those were the things he counted on being there when he got back. He had so little, he had lost so much already. He didn’t want to lose Baz too”. Neil smiled; Andrew took this very seriously.</p>
<hr/>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <em><span class="u">CARRY ON PAGE 109</span><br/>
‘I keep looking for Baz.<br/>
Or a clue.<br/>
Every night I turn back when I get to the end of my rope,’</em>
  </p>
</blockquote><hr/><p>“Simon was protective over Baz,” Andrew had explained, “even if he was a dick to him sometimes. No one but he could lay a finger on Baz – I can relate”.</p><p><br/>
At first, Neil had thought that Andrew was in fictional character love with Simon, but by the time Baz actually showed up in the book, Neil realized that Baz was Andrew’s one true fictional love and that Andrew was projecting himself into Simon. Neil found this new side of Andrew intriguing. Everyone thought he didn’t care about anything. If only they knew how much he cared about this book because he related to the main character who was an orphan. A book he read and clung to when he felt alone in Juvi. If only they knew how protective, he was over the characters and how fiercely he wished he could attend Watford – more than Potterhead’s wanted to attend Hogwarts.</p><p><br/>
The arrival of Baz Pitch into Andrew’s very elaborate narration was truly adorable. Andrew was clearly taken by this fictional character. Neil couldn’t exactly be jealous of this book boyfriend in Andrew’s mind, so he sat back and watched the faint blush of Andrew’s cheeks as he entered the next level of fanboy.</p>
<hr/>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <em><span class="u">CARRY ON PAGE 15O</span><br/>
‘When the figure steps forward, I recognize him at once.<br/>
Tall. Black hair swept back from his forehead. Lips curled up in a sneer… I know that face as well as my own.<br/>
</em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>Baz </em>
  </p>
</blockquote><hr/><p>“really,” Andrew elaborates, “the idiot should have realized that he wanted to blow Baz a lot sooner. But then, Baz Pitch is a pipe dream”, he says with a smirk at Neil as he continues his story.</p><p>Andrew had been reciting passages from the book in perfect wording - because he is Andrew. Andrew’s eidetic memory had always amazed Neil, but this new discovery that Andrew is a bookworm and he uses his memory to spontaneously quote his favorite books in elaborate passages with his detailed narration… Neil has never loved Andrew more.</p><p><br/>
These are the parts of Andrew that no one gets to see. The insignificant details that complete a person. After a year of loving him, Neil is still learning Andrew. He falls more in love with him every day.<br/>
Neil learns that Andrew was still figuring out his sexuality when he read Carry on, it took him a long time to accept because of his past experiences with intimacy.</p><p><br/>
Andrew explains how the revelation that Baz is queer helped him accept himself. And how Simon accepting his sexuality as far less of an issue considering the bigger things he has to worry about, later on in the book, helped him see that his possible 'gayness' really isn’t that big of a deal. If anything, having a label was only important for his own identification. It didn’t matter to anyone else.</p>
<hr/>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <em><span class="u">CARRY ON PAGE 176</span><br/>
I let myself slip away…<br/>
Just to stay sane. Just to get through it.<br/>
And when I felt myself slipping too far, I held on to the one thing I’m always sure of –<br/>
Blue eyes.<br/>
Bronze curls.</em>
  </p>
</blockquote><hr/><p>Around 1 am the chill on the roof made Neil shiver. Andrew asked Neil if he’d like to go downstairs, back to their dorms. Neil craved the warmth, but he was afraid that if he stopped this conversation now, Andrew might not open up so enthusiastically again. He declined the offer, and Andrew shrugged off the black hoodie he was wearing. He took a seat between Neil’s legs, leaning back on his chest. Andrew’s head fit right under Neil’s chin. He covered himself with his hoodie, using it as a blanket instead. Then, he maneuvered Neil’s arms into the sleeves of the jacket in front of him, so that he was trapped between Neil and the Jacket. The entire thing looked rather odd, but it was one of the softest gestures Andrew had initiated. Neil wrapped his legs around Andrew’s torso and held him tight, listening to Andrew indulge further into the significance that this book had on who he is.<br/>
<br/>
“When I was in rehab, last year”, Andrew explains, referring to his withdrawal period after he got off his meds, “it was really difficult to keep waking up there.”</p><p>Neil knew what he meant. Andrew had been trying to reorientate himself to a world unmedicated, in a new environment, after being sexually abused by one of the worst people in Andrew’s life. He didn’t know what was happening with his foxes, his brother, or Neil. The last thing that had happened before Andrew had been taken to rehab was Aaron killing drake to protect Andrew. It was a lot to survive, on its own. But in addition to that, Andrew had to deal with Proust. Finding the will power to go on was not an easy task.</p><p><br/>
“Sometimes I sort of…go through books I’ve read in my mind? It's weird to describe to someone with normal memory. But I recall books exactly, so I sort of read through the book in my mind to keep my brain distracted.” Andrew Recited page 176 of Carry on to Neil.<br/>
<br/>
“I just kept reciting the words to myself. Baz got through his torture by holding on to the boy he loved. Just thinking about him. It kept him sane.” Andrew explained, “I thought of you every day I was there. I thought of the name Abram, and I thought of the scars I felt under your shirt. I thought of your eyes and I thought of the way you look at me. I didn’t know you were in the nest; I didn’t know you would ever do something like that to protect me. But the thought of you kept me sane. The memory of you put me back together every time he took me apart.”</p><p>A tear streaked Neil’s cheek, falling somewhere in Andrew’s blonde locks. He couldn’t form a verbal response. He held on to his boyfriend tighter; squeezed his arms around Andrew’s shoulders and his legs around Andrew’s torso.</p><p>Andrew kept reciting words to him, all mumbled in sleepy hushed voices;</p>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>“page three hundred and sixty four. I’d cross every line for him. I’m in love with him. And he likes this better than fighting” he mumbles into Neil’s shoulder as they topple over.</p>
</blockquote><p>Accurate recall even as he falls asleep.</p>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>“Page three hundred and ninety, I want to be your boyfriend, your terrible boyfriend” he mumbles as Neil pulls him into little spoon position on the roof floor, tangled in Andrew’s jacket. He goes willingly.</p>
  <p>“Page four hundred and twenty, you literally couldn’t be a bigger mess. He tries to kiss me, but I hold back. And you like that? I love it, he says. Why? Because we match.”, Andrew mumbles as Neil kisses the back of his neck, creeping his hands under Andrew’s shirt seeking the warmth of body heat.</p>
</blockquote><p>Neil had removed his arms from the sleeves of Andrews jacket, which now covered them like a blanket.</p>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>“Page five-hundred and six. You were the center of my universe I say. Everything else spun around you”</p>
</blockquote><p>Andrew quotes once Neil has already fallen asleep, wrapped up around him.</p><p>A few hours later, the sunrise wakes them up. They wake up tangled in each other, creaks in their necks and backs from sleeping on concrete. But Andrew is still the little spoon and Neil has slept in worse places, without the boy he loves in his arms. So, neither of them move or say a word. They watch the sunrise until it gets too bright for their eyes. Neil takes Andrew's jacket and throws it over their heads to shield it from the sun. They kiss under the jacket, morning breath and all, on the roof of their dorms. They should sneak into their room soon before someone notices they're gone. But at this moment, Neil can’t find it in him to care.</p>
<hr/>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <em><span class="u">CARRY ON PAGE 364</span><br/>
I’d cross every line for him.<br/>
I’m in love with him.<br/>
And he likes this better than fighting.</em>
  </p>
</blockquote><hr/>
<hr/>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <em><span class="u">CARRY ON PAGE 390</span><br/>
“I like this,” I go on. “All of this that we’ve been doing.”<br/>
He ignores me.<br/>
“I like you” I say. “And I don’t even care that you don’t like me – I’m used to it; I wouldn’t know what to do if you did. But I like you, Baz. I like this. I like helping you. I like knowing that you’re okay. When you didn’t come back to school this Autumn, when you were missing…I thought I was going to lose my mind.”<br/>
“you thought I was plotting against you,” he says.<br/>
“Yeah,” I say. “And I missed you.”<br/>
He shakes his head. “there’s something wrong with you -”<br/>
“I know. But I still want this, if you’ll let me have it.”<br/>
Baz finally turns to look at me. “What’s this, Snow?”<br/>
“This,” I say. “I want to be your boyfriend. Your terrible boyfriend."</em>
  </p>
</blockquote><hr/>
<hr/>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <em><span class="u">CARRY ON PAGE 420</span><br/>
“What you are is a fucking tragedy Simon Snow. You literally couldn’t be a bigger mess.”<br/>
He tries to kiss me, but I hold back – “And you like that?”<br/>
“I love it,” he says.<br/>
“why?”<br/>
“because we match.”</em>
  </p>
</blockquote><hr/>
<hr/>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <em><span class="u">CARRY ON PAGE 506</span><br/>
“it made us roommates,” he says<br/>
I shake my head. “we were always more.”<br/>
“we were enemies.”<br/>
“You were the centre of my universe,” I say. “Everything else spun around you.”</em>
  </p>
</blockquote><hr/><p> </p>
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